1990 Photo Contest, Others, Stories, Individual awards

Photographer

Anthony Suau

Black Star for U.S. News & World Report

11 November, 1989

Frustration that had been building up over nearly three decades is finally unleashed on the symbol of division that the Berlin Wall has become.

In January 1989, East German leader Erich Honecker said he expected the Berlin Wall to endure for another century. By November it had become an anachronism—and so had Honecker. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans fled their country by various routes until the government decided on 9 November to allow free travel to the West. Two days later the frustration that had been building up over nearly three decades was finally unleashed on the symbol of division that the wall had become.